The Martin Beck Stories: 10 BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations

The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965 and 1975, the 10-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction. Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's liberal society.

Northanger Abbey: An Audible Original Drama

A coming-of-age tale for the young and naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey takes a decidedly comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. Revelling in the sensationalist - and extremely popular - Gothic fiction of her day, the story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the Tilneys, where her overactive imagination gets to work constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney, which threatens to jeopardise her newly forged friendships.

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries: Classic Radio Crime

In these two dramas, she puts her extraordinary mind to work investigating cases of disguise, dismemberment, mayhem and murder. In Speedy Death, a country house in the 1920s is rocked by a murder which takes place in a room which is first locked, then later unlocked. As fingers point and the suspects begin to turn on each other, another death occurs. Then The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop sees Mrs Bradley investigating as a headless body is found in the butcher's shop.

A Perfect Spy: BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation

'Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.' So says Magnus Pym, the spy of the title; and he has betrayed a lot in his life - countries, friends, family and lovers. When Magnus disappears after his father's funeral, MI6 launches an urgent manhunt to prevent his defection. But Pym is on a search of his own - to unravel the mystery of what made him the perfect spy.

The Ambassadors

American Lambert Strether is sent to Paris on behalf of Mrs. Newsome, his fiancée, to collect her son, Chad. When Strether finds Chad, he discovers an altered man and becomes introduced to a free and unconventional style of life that soon intoxicates him. His views begin to change; the morality of Woollett, his hometown, becomes foreign, and the "ambassador" loses sight of his mission....

The Wings of the Dove

Milly Theale is a young, beautiful, and fabulously wealthy American. When she arrives in London and meets the equally beautiful but impoverished Kate Croy, they form an intimate friendship. But nothing is as it seems: materialism, romance, self-delusion, and ultimately fatal illness insidiously contaminate the glamorous social whirl.

The Portrait of a Lady

When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors, declaring that she will never marry. It is only when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the cultivated but worthless Gilbert Osmond that she discovers that wealth is a two-edged sword.

Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty

Wentworth is today a crumbling and forgotten palace in Yorkshire. Yet just 100 years ago it was the ancestral pile of the Fitzwilliams' - an aristocratic clan whose home and life were fuelled by coal mining. This is the story of their spectacular decline: of inheritance fights; rumours of a changeling and of lunacy; philandering earls; illicit love; war heroism: a tragic connection to the Kennedys'; violent deaths: mining poverty and squalor; and a class war that literally ripped apart the local landscape.

Powerful full-cast radio dramatisations of three of Charles Dickens' most famous novels. Barnaby Rudge, set against the background of the anti-Catholic riots of the 1780s, follows the plight of young Barnaby and his widowed mother. Martin Chuzzlewit is a darkly comic masterpiece in which a disinherited Martin sets sail for America to seek his fortune. Dombey and Son examines a rich city merchant and his troubled relationships at home.

The Forsytes Returns: BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Joseph Millson and Jessica Raine star in a brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation continuing John Galsworthy's saga of the Forsyte family spanning 50 years. Galsworthy's novels The Silver Spoon and Swan Song, dramatized here in 7 episodes, continue to follow Fleur Forsyte, as she falls in love with Jon, and later, escaping heartbreak, marries Michael Mont and embraces all society has to offer.

The Forsytes

Joseph Millson and Jessica Raine star in a brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the first two books in John Galsworthy's saga of the Forsyte family spanning 50 years. These 8 episodes dramatise the events of Galsworthy's first two novels in the saga; The Man of Property and In Chancery as well as the interlude Indian Summer of a Forsyte.

Dr Morelle: Collected Cases: Classic Radio Crime

Seven instalments of the classic radio crime drama starring Cecil Parker, plus special documentary feature 'A Case for Dr Morelle'. Dr Morelle uses psychological insight, criminology and dogged persistence to solve cases. Here he must deduce the answers to mysteries including a hotel death, a man tormented by nightmares, and deadly threats made to an elderly spinster.

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: Volume Two (Dramatised)

Clive Merrison and Michael Williams star as Holmes and Watson in the fifth collection of stories from the unique fully dramatised BBC Radio 4 canon. 'The Sussex Vampire': A return to the supernatural for Holmes as he investigates the case of a baby with two small wounds on his neck and a woman with blood on her lips.

The Jane Austen BBC Radio Drama Collection: Six BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

A collection of BBC radio full-cast dramatisations of Jane Austen's six major novels. Jane Austen is one of the finest writers in the English language, and this volume includes all six of her classic novels. Mansfield Park: on a quest to find a position in society, Fanny Price goes to live with her rich aunt and uncle. Northanger Abbey: young, naïve Catherine Morland receives an invitation to stay at the isolated Gothic mansion Northanger Abbey.

Alien: Covenant Origins: The Official Prequel to the Blockbuster Film

The Covenant mission is the most ambitious endeavor in the history of Weyland-Yutani. A ship bound for Origae-6, carrying 2,000 colonists beyond the limits of known space, this is a make-or-break investment for the corporation - and for the future of all mankind. Yet there are those who would die to stop the mission. As the colony ship hovers in Earth orbit, several violent events reveal a deadly conspiracy to sabotage the launch.

Maigret and the Minister and Other Stories (Dramatised)

Four full-cast dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Inspector Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon. Simenon and his masterful inspector, Jules Maigret, look back together over four of their greatest cases... Where is the vital report that holds the key to the fate of the French government? What is the secret behind the mysterious suicide in Bremen? Who is responsible for the sudden disappearance of one of Paris's best known solicitors? And will the demented double murderer strike again?

The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, first serialized in a magazine in 1930, is best known through the iconic Humphrey Bogart film of 1941. But it was the book that created the classic "noir" genre with its tough private detective threading his cool way between the criminals and the law. Sam Spade, the private eye solving the mystery of the Maltese statuette, was the template for Philip Marlowe and a host of others.... but they come no more shrewd and cunning with Hammett peppering the text with one-liners.

Audible Editor Reviews

William Hope uses his voice well to give varied voices to men and women, both British and American and of various ages, in this novel of transatlantic complications between an ailing American heiress and the passionate British couple driven to use her. Hope's Brits, especially Mrs. Lowder, tend to caricature. Still, he has command of James's complex sentences, and his pacing, accenting, and emphasis often make them clearer to hear than they are to read, an achievement that is considerable.

Publisher's Summary

Milly Theale is a young, beautiful, and fabulously wealthy American. When she arrives in London and meets the equally beautiful but impoverished Kate Croy, they form an intimate friendship. But nothing is as it seems; materialism, romance, self-delusion, and ultimately fatal illness, insidiously contaminate the glamorous social whirl.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.